Liberty Media, the company controlled by billionaire mogul John Malone that has ownership stakes in assets like Live Nation, audio entertainment giant SiriusXM and the Formula 1 racing circuit, reported second-quarter financials on Thursday.
CEO Greg Maffei, on an analyst call, talked about concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment and said that concert demand shows “no signs of slowdown.” Liberty Media. added in commentary that accompanied its latest financial results: “Live Nation achieved record concerts profitability and global demand hasn’t slowed as indicators point to another record year ahead.”
Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department sued Live Nation over claims of antitrust violations. The suit, which was also brought by 29 states and the District of Columbia, alleges that Live Nation had used its position as the nation’s largest concert promoter, ticket seller and venue owner to beat out competitors.
Asked if a possible breakup of Liberty Media by splitting off Live Nation was on the cards amid the overhang of the DOJ lawsuit, Maffei told analysts: “I don’t think a break up is in the interest of Live Nation today, or in the interest of the consumer … We’ll go forward with the businesses we have.”
Meanwhile, quarterly revenue at the Formula 1 Group’s revenue jumped 20 percent to $871 million, the company disclosed in its earnings report. SiriusXM, the home of Howard Stern, recorded a 3 percent fall in revenue to $2.17 billion.
SiriusXM has been rebuilding its tech stack and relaunching its streaming app to allow the audio entertainment company to sign up more streaming-only subscribers beyond car drivers. Maffei on an analyst call reiterated the transaction for SiriusXM to become an independent public company, with no majority stockholder, is expected to close on Sept. 9.
Last year, Liberty Media proposed a combination of its Liberty SiriusXM tracking stock group with the satellite radio giant to form a new, consolidated publicly-traded company. Liberty back then owned an 83 percent stake in SiriusXM.
In terms of operating profit, Liberty SiriusXM Group posted a 4 percent rise in operating profit to $471 million in the second quarter, while the Formula 1 operating result jumped from a profit of $52 million a year-earlier to a profit of $59 million in the latest financial quarter.
Stefano Domenicali, CEO of the Formula One Group, also talked about ticket demand for the race car circuit as the entertainment industry faces the threat of a fall in consumer spending amid a slowing economy. “We don’t see any kind of significant lag or drop of any interest … We are of course monitoring the situation, but this is something we don’t see at all in our championship.”
Domenicali also talked about Formula 1 renewing its media rights deal with ESPN after the current contract expires in 2025. “We see now bigger interest, for sure. We see some other sports trying to divide the package in a different way. So what I can say from customer point of view is creating a multiple offer is creating more confusion. So we need to make sure that, with the incredible demand that we have, different partners would be taking it in the right way at the appropriate time,” he told analysts.
